and today was ending jealousy and using love instead. that was great. thank you, everybody. that was fun. see you tomorrow. >> bob: happy valentine's day. >> bret: this was supposed to be leon panetta's last day as the pentagon chief, but after a rocky confirmation hearing, senators' demands for other answers the replacement has been temporarily blocked. this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> bret: good evening. i'm bret baier. bags are packed. ready to head out of town but leon panetta isn't riding nauf the sunset of california retirement yet. senate republicans are blocking a vote on panetta's embattled replacement over among other things questions about the libya terror attack last september.

mike emanuel on what is holding up chuck hagel. >> they successfully delayed chuck hagel's controversial nomination as secretary of defense. late today, procedural vote failed after senator john mccain had made the case for waiting until after next week's recess. >> i think that is a sufficient period of time to get answers to outstanding questions and i think that senator hagel after that period of time deserves a cloture vote and a up-or-down vote on his nomination. >> i have valued your thoughts and your contributions. i think most all of us in public office feel that way. >> among questions, speeches like to one in june 13, 2008, before the arab american antidiscrimination committee that hagel did not disclose to armed services committee. earlier they blasted republicans for holding up hagel's nomination to lead the pentagon. >> it's shocking that my republican colleagues would leave the nation would a fully

empowered secretary of defense. during all the things we have going on in the world, including a war. >> but panetta isn't leaving yet. and 60-vote requirement is not unusual, say republicans and reid was fine when it was president bush's nominees. top republicans say members have legitimate concerns. >> those of us in the minority on the senate armed services committee should demand that any member of the senate armed services committee should have his question answered before we vote on the confirmation of hagel to be secretary of defense. >> other leading republicans demanded answers about the benghazi terrorist attack last september 11 where four americans were killed. this letter was sent to lindsey graham and kelly ayotte, who they spoke with libyan government officials in the attack. white house official wrote, "secretary clinton called libyan president el-megarif on behalf of the president on the

evening of september 11, 2012, to coordinate support to protect americans in libya and access to libyan territory." that angered graham. >> the president of the united states did not make any phone calls to any government official. and libya, the entire period of the attack. he called government officials on september 12, after everybody was dead. >> we would not have gotten answers but for pushing for this. frankly, the more answers we have gotten i think we have shown here that this was a national security failure. >> late today, president obama said chuck hagel is imminently qualified to be secretary of defense. the president says he deserves a vote and predicted eventually he will get confirmed. >> bret: mikes, thanks. we just got word from the pentagon that panetta is heading to california tonight,

to monterrey. the ride is also getting bumpy for the president's choice as top spy master. the complication and confusion continues to multiply surrounding what happened last september 11. both in libya and back here in washington. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has an update. >> the president's pick to lead the c.i.a. counterterrorism advisor john brennan faces new and up comfortable obstacles about the benghazi terrorist attack and the administration handling of the suspect al-harzi. this letter pushes them to explain disparity between his sworn testimony and that of former secretary of state hillary clinton. >> they insisted that the tunisia authorities did not have the evidence to keep him in custody. >> tunisias did not have a basis in their law to hold him.

>> so they released him? >> they did. >> where is he? >> still in tunisia. >> it doesn't sound like a good system to work with partners. >> they work the way we do. >> f.b.i. interviewed him for two hours in december after weeks of delay and following the personal intervention of the republican senator lindsey graham. he seemed to minimize the suspect's release. claiming the u.s. case was weak. >> we didn't have anything on him either or we would have made point to tunisias to turn him over to us. >> two weeks earlier in the benghazi hearing, secretary clinton said she spoke with mueller about whether the government's case could be made public. >> director mueller and i spoke about this at some length. there was not an ability for evidence to be presented yet that was cape to believe be presented in open court. >> clinton said the tunisians promised to keep tabs on him. >> we have been assured that

he is under the monitoring of the court. i have no reason to believe he is not still in tunis but we are checking that all the time. >> when fox news asked for update given clinton's statement to congress, the state department deflected. >> the f.b.i. has the lead in the benghazi investigation. i don't have anything to share. it will send you to the f.b.i. >> no immediate response. no evident by the white house to reconcile the conflict between the testimony. >> bret: senator lindsey graham has been leading the effort to find out what happened september 11 in libya and joins us now on set. welcome. >> thank you. >> bret: there seems to be a lot of things you are still trying to find the answer to. the president today said in a google hangout that there are -- i'm not quoting here but he said it seems they are

running out of questions to ask. paraphrasing what he said. your response? >> i destroyed a small forest trying to get the president to account for the leadership and the knowledge about benghazi. i have one question answered. i probably sent 30. the man released in tunisia, do you think we had anything on him or not? the reasoning i intervened is because i was told this is a leading suspect in attack on the consulate. why did i have to do that? why didn't you call them. when the ambassador was attacked in june of this year and they closed their consulate did you know about it and why did we keep ours open? we are just scratching the service. nothing could be further from the truth about us running out of questions.

>> you did have some answers. >> one. >> bret: what was that? >> i asked did you pick up the phone to call a libya official for september 11 in the attack? he said after a two-page letter from the lawyer, no. he called them the next day after they were dead. the rescue team was held up in the benghazi ain't for 3-1/2 hours frying to get to the annex and help these people. i believed that if the president picked up the phone there is no voice in world like that of the president of the united states that could have made a difference. he never called anybody in libya or talked to the secretary of defense other than 15-minute initial assessment. he didn't talk to brennan or jack lew or dempsey or panetta in the evening. he never called to say how are we doing? he was disengaged. he turned to romney and say i

send these people in harm's way and i know the families he was letting us believe he was hands on. frank lil, seems to be it was detached. >> bret: i want to listen to what the president said today on the topic regarding benghazi. take a listen. >> this is the most transparent administration in history. there are a handful of issues around security where people have legitimate questions and they are still concerned about whether or not we have all the information we need. benghazi by the way is not a good example of that. that was largely driven by campaign stuff because everything about that we have had more testimony and more paper provided to congress than ever before. congress is running out of things to ask. >> i want to play again, hillary clinton from her testimony. we have heard this before. listen again. i want you to react to it.

>> with all due respect we have four dead americans. is it because of a protest or guys out for a walk who decided they would kill americans? what difference does it make? we have to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening again. >> bret: people say why is this important? why are you doing this? why is this important today? why are you holding up the nomination, not tenbially brennan's nomination? why? >> i hope the next president when there is an attack on the consulate or a foreign emergency, national security incident they will pick up the phone because they remember what happened when obama didn't. senator obama and senator clinton had no problem trying to figure out how we failed in iraq. did it matter to go back and investigate bush administration interrogation techniques? i think it did. i joined them.

did it matter to question the policy in iraq after it was failing? the point is you have four dead americans and commander in chief who is disengaged. you got the secretary of state never talking to the secretary of defense. you have the secretary of state of state not knowing her own ambassador sending cables to her department saying we can't defend the conflict case of coordinated acin august. the secretary of state knew about it. secretary of defense didn't. how can it be? who changed the talking point. how could the president of the united states go to the american people for three weeks with susan rice and say we believe there is no evidence of a coordinated preplanned terrorist attack. the secretary of defense testified before the congress and knew that night? they manipulated the intelligence close to ethrax create narrative that bin laden was dead, al-qaeda is

dishandled and we're all safe. what they said this is a video creating spontaneous event was misleading by the administration and it matters. >> bret: have you heard about survivors telling their story the? do you know anything about that? >> i don't know who they are. we still don't have the f.b.i. interview. best evidence of what happened is the survivors. they will not give the united states congress the f.b.i. interviews of the survivors. we have been told five versions of who changed the talking points. this is not transparent. they are delaying and denying and deceiving. it will not give up until we know what happened. at the end of the day it's about four dead americans.

the way the president handled the situation and the national security team is a travdy. we need to get to the bottom of it. we will. >> bret: will chuck hagel get approved? >> unless there is a bombshell he will get an up-or-down vote. i hope a democrat will look at hagel's record and the outrageous statement he is has made about the state of israel and reconsider and have one democrat vote no. if you find one democrat vote no flood gates would open. i don't know. >> bret: thanks. we'll continue to follow it. >> bret: if you haven't heard, it's valentine's day's. political vaulten tines later in grapevine. up next, trying to avoid the doomsday scenario. we'll explain.

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>> bret: we are a few days away from the pentagon financial doomsday scenario, that's what panetta called it. it's called sequestration that many experts say would threatp national security.

carl cameron tonight on the latest plan to avoid it. >> with $85 billion set to start two weeks tomorrow, democrats unveil the a terptive. $55 billion in spending cuts over the next few years. $55 billion in new taxes on the wealthy now. balanced approach to revenue and cuts. >> revenues is taxes. the g.o.p. pronnounceed more taxes dead on arrival. >> this is not a solution. even they know it can't pass. that is the idea. a political stunt designed to fask the fact they offered no solutions. >> congressional budget office estimates across-the-board cut would trim 8% off the defense department and 5-6% from other agencies. democrats insist any solution must include tax hike on the rich.

>> is it a spending problem? >> no. it's because we have misallocation of capital and wealth. >> we have a tax code that is skewed for the wealthy. >> $85 billion sequester cut amount to 2.4% of this yore's $3.6 trillion budget. one-half of 1% of the $16.5 trillion federal debt. drop in ocean of federal spending yet democrats describe a tsunami headed for government services, personnel and public. >> if allowed to occur it would have destructive consequences for national security, and core government services. the cuts are more middle class seniors. >> airports, wait times could reach from two hours to four hours or more. >> john boehner laid it at the president's speech for proposing the automatic across the board from the first place as the 2009 budget act.

>> where is the president's plan to replace sequester he incysted upon? >> finger pointing in every direction. standoff continues. deadline is two weeks from tomorrow but the lawmakers are on vacation next week so as far as congress there are five work days to find a compromise, no deal in sight. bret? >> bret: all right, carl. thank you. new jersey democrat will not seek re-election to the senate next year. he is in his fifth term hecht plans to make a formal announcement tomorrow. newark democratic mayor corey booker intend to run for the seat. up next, will he get his wish list? or will the president be taken to school? is a new class of miles per hours merging? a class you dept want to be a part of? to feel better? itching for relief? preparation h offers the most maximum strength solutions

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>> bret: president obama laid out ambitious agenda on energy efficiency and climb change and education in the "state of the union" tuesday. how much of that has any realistic chance of being adopted? chief white house correspondent ed henry takes a look. >> day two of president obama hitting the road to sell an agenda he thinks has a good shot of passing congress and turning around the economy. >> on tuesday i delivered my "state of the union" address and i laid out a plan for reignating what i believe is the true engine of america economic growth. a thriving, growing rising middle class. >> reality check from speaker john boehner who is declaring it's largely dead on arrival. >> notably it lacked any new ideas.

he hoped to millions of americans asking question: where are the jobs? >> he taking aim to boost the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9. which the white house is framing as boon to middle class. >> an idea that governor romney and i agreed on last year. tie minimum wage to the cost of living so it becomes a wage to live on. >> except there is disagreement from even mark xandy, economist that the white house touted for previous endorsement of the 2009 stimulus and the 2011 american jobs act. xandy says higher minimum wage could boost some income it will lead some employers to stop hiring. so on net, he told the "associated press" i'm not sure it helps. >> it would lower the amount of hours individuals work if it was mandated to go up to $9 an hour. think how many institutions and places you do business with that have minimum wage

earning individuals. >> he faces long odds on getting the federal government to provide preschool for every 4-year-old child from the lower and middle class families. >> study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning the better he or she does down the road. >> conservatives note study by the department of heart and human services found 4-year-olds in a similar program had very little benefit by the time they reach the third grade. >> in a google plus hangout, small businesswoman told the president she had to lay off two employees because of a hike in the minimum wage. president countered that henry ford said he played the employees well so they could afford his cars. >> bret: thank you. not a lot of movement on wall street. dow ended down 9.5. the nasdaq gaped. two first-time request for jobless benefit dropped by $27,000 last month.

the unemployment remanes high. there is fear it could breed new depep dept underclass in america. permanently unemployed. doug mckelway looks at why that is happening. >> mitt romney was roundly skewered for campaign comments he called completely wrong. ohio university comments vetter believes that romney was right and says expanding benefit of -- system of government benefit has poverty rate that is higher than 1973 >> they are creating dependency on the government. vote for the broader society. >> it rings hallow for a laid off worker with 33 years of pair legal experience and receives unemployment benefit she hates collecting. >> people cry being unemployed. it doesn't help at all.

>> an economist with the left-leaning economic policy institute says to blame government assistance for ununemployment is confusing causation with correlation. >> we know there are three times massachusetts job seekers as job openings right now. even if every job opening was filled tomorrow, two-third of unemployed workers would still be unemployed. the jobs aren't there. >> kyle murphy runs a sandwich shop and says he sees new hire quit to seek government benefits. >> the people who know how to use the system best get the most out of it. not people who need assistance the most. >> he says four programs in particular, demonstrate americans' increasing dependence on government. food stamps 306,789,000,000 more americans receive them than in the year 2000. social security disability. 3 million americans receive payment in 1990. today is 8.6 million.

pel grants 3.9 million students awarded them in 2000 but today it's 9.78 million. even though half of the graduates work in jobs that require no degree. extended unemployment benefit. 26 weeks was the standard. today is 52 weeks or more for many. another explanation for the steep rise in the social security disability benefits. that being the aging workforc workforce. baby boomers approaching the age of infirmary. >> bret: american airlines and u.s. airways agreed to merge. the new american airlines would be the world's biggest carrier. it would leave four airlines, american, united, delta and southwest. we are awaiting the arrival of the carnival triumph in port in mobile, alabama, tonight. reports from the crippled cruise ship with 4,000 people aboard told of long lines for food, untary conditions and --

unsanitary conditions and illness. earlier today the towline to the tugboat snapped causing another delay. once on land passengers can choose to ride buss to new orleans, galveston or houston. valentine's day wish for the politically inclined. taking a bold stand against zombies. laugh at your own peril. grapevine is next. hi. hi. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens. the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. sharble data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola.

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>> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. the sip of water that won't go away. while senator marco rubio's drink in the republican response in the "state of the union" was up doubtedly awkward, yesterday cnn ran a graphic reading "career ender" over the rubio story with wolf blitzer wondering allowed, "so, can a drink of water make or break a political career?" cnn clarified via twitter, "we are joking. it was a tease." new york democrat congressman charles rangel seemed serious when he said, "most people were embarrassed by his performance." the rnc issued this response -- "if i were senator rubio, i wouldn't too concerned about charles rangel's opinion considering he hasn't seen an ethics violation he didn't like." zombies are getting attention in canada. last year the government in british columbia referenceed threat of zombie attack to encourage residents to put

together emergency survival kit. then the heart and stroke association put together zombie class to promote cpr classes. yesterday, zombies came up on the floor of parliament. >> zombies don't recognize orders. the zombie invasion in the united states could easily turn in to a continent wide pandemic. >> i am dedicated to ensuring that this never happens. under the leadership of this prime minister, canada will never become a safe haven for zombies ever! >> bret: they are kidding. we think. this valentine's day, love from across the aisle. the democratic congressional campaign committee issued a series of spoofed g.o.p. valentines, with messages including, "to millionaires. who says money can't buy love?" and "to the 47%, i love you 100%." not to be outdone g.o.p. sends this.

"i haven't had a valentine's day budget in four years." from harry reid. and from vice president biden, "today's three letter word -- l-o-v-e." we now know the recession and the euro zone is getting worse, not better. that cannot be good news for the u.s., actually. senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot has the story from london. >> the latest figure shows euro zone falling deeper in recession. >> europe is spluttering, stuttering and having a terrible time. >> effectively a double dip recession. some of the hardest hit country were debt-plagued spain and italy. france was sluggish. growth in germany down .6%. slow growth in economic powerhouse germany is especially worrying.

the weakness is hurting the german exports. adding to economic headache, strike of security workers for higher pay snarled airports in germany today. >> he said is up it. even if i suffer for it. further come pounding problems debt-ridden countries are saddled with high unemployment. the jobless rate in greece is record 27%. i come here all the time. there are no jobs. economists say there could be some pick nun euro growth this year. that would be good news for the u.s. europe is our biggest trading partner. nearly $650 billion in two-way trade last year. >> we all barely growing if we are increasing taxes. and cutting spending. then that will have a direct impact on the wealth of ordinary americans.

talks have yet to begin. experts warn economic relief could be a few years away. bret? >> bret: greg palkot in london. thank you. a many man consider around the world a hero and a role model is suspected of murder in south africa. police say olympic sprinter oscar pistorius, known as "blade runner" due to the artificial legs fatally shot his girlfriend early this morning. early reports say pistorius may have mistaken model girlfriend for an intruder, although authorities are not confirming that. the road to confirmation is becoming more of a jungle for some of the president's picks. we'll find out why with the fox all-stars. when we come back. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid.

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republican colleagues would leave the nation without a fully empowered secretary of defense during all the things we have going on in the world, including a war. >> i didn't note that sense of urgency for three months when john towers' nomination was held in limbo by the then majority democrats. the secretary of defense post was vacant at that time as well. >> bret: well, today, the haguthehague hague nomination ha speed bump at least temporarily. republicans managed to block the vote. the clo sure vote failing by vote of 58-40-1. essentially blocking it because republicans didn't want it to get to the 60 vote saying they need more time for this. will it get to 60 next week? possibly. what about this? also john brennan and c.i.a. let's bring in our panel. judge andrew napolitano. fox news senior judicial analyst. kirsten powers columnist for the daily beast. syndicated columnist charles

krauthammer. okay, charles, we heard that senator lindsey graham on the reasoning behind his vote. and the reason whether why he o delay this. others have different reasoning. your thoughts on this and how it plays. >> as you said, there are a variety of reasons. i think the main one right now for the delay, it looks as if it's just a delay, it's not a denial until the end of time, of a vote on his nomination. it's to look in to the speeches, the income that he hadn't disclosed, in response to a question from senator ted cruz, who asked about that and hadn't received a response. i think the republicans are on good grounds of demanding information. they are required to give advice and consent. in the case of john boltton, nominated by the bush administration to be u.n. ambassador, he was actually stopped completely from the nomination from getting a vote. because of, you know, of a protest by democrats about lack of information.

ultimately, the bush administration had to give them a recess appointment. so it is a perfectly legitimate maneuver to, "a," get information and let's actually see what was in the speeches that hagel had not disclosed. >> bret: one of the things that graham talked about and other senators including mccain and senator ayotte is information about benghazi. president obama talked about that on google plus hangout today. take another listen to that, because it was pretty interesting his response. i played it earlier. >> this the most transparent administration in history. there are a handful of issues. postally around national security. where people have legitimate questions, where they are still concerned about whether or not we have all the information we need. benghazi by the way, is not a good example of that. that was larmly driven by campaign stuff because everything about that, we have had more testimony and more paper provided to congress

than ever before. congress is sort of running out of things to ask. >> bret: kirsten >> the big question is if you believe anything that he just said. it's so preposterous, the whole line he just sold. nobody has run out of questions. i can assure him of that. they haven't really answered them. it's not a transparent administration. it was very nice of him to bring up foreign policy, because in fact he has not been transparent at all about his drone war or his kill list or any of the other things that have to be leaked for us to find out about. we still don't know what he was doing the night of the attack in benghazi. not just the night of the attack in benghazi but also the night on the attack on the cairo embassy and other embassies in the middle east. if he is transparent, you know, this is sort of basic information that he should provide. >> bret: so you agree that for these senators to say hey, we need this information, it's okay for them to hold up even national security cabinet position for some time to get

it. >> the president should be given extreme deference in appointing his members of his cabinet. the way john bolton was treated was terrible. i said that at the time. i think there has to be a real reason. in this situation, i think he will be confirmed but it is sad that lindsey graham has the hold up a nomination to find out where the president was the night of the terrorist attack. i mean something is just wrong there. this is not really the role -- this is the role of the media. these are questions that should have been answered in the white house briefing room. he should haven't to hold it up to get basic information. >> bret: the news i heard in the interview is senator graham said he hadn't, they hadn't gotten the information from the survivors of benghazi. the interviews that the f.b.i. conducted after the attack, they haven't been given to congress. congress hasn't talked to any of the survivors. a number of them we don't know where they are, or who they

are. >> because the administration won't tell the senate investigators who they are or what they said, which shows the truthfulness of kirsten's observation of the president's falsehoods. the congress has not received everything it's entitled to. no provision under the constitution. i wish there were. for the senate to interrogate the president. for lindsey graham to ask the question what he knew and when he knew it and to whomdy he speak? there is no procedure for that. but the american public is entitled to it. for him to get on national television and speak essentially to youth and say we have been the most transparent and we have given more information on benghazi than anything else is not true. as for this interplay with the people, hagel, jack lew, john brennan, the president has a presumption. the presumption is he is entiteed to have the people run executive departments that he chooses and likely to run it way he wants them to, no matter who they are. but there are subtle changes going on here that the republicans are aware of.

chuck hagel is a reluctant warrior. he doesn't want to use the military to shoot at bad guys. brennan wants to use zillian c.i.a. agents to shoot at bad guys. the legislation regulates the military not the c.i.a. this type of a subtle change here cannot go unnoticed. >> bret: when you hear democrats saying benghazi is over, this is done, this is all political, this is just a done deal, this is, this should not be a factor, what do you think? they are thinking wishfully and the wish i hope and pray will not be granted. because the administration commenced this with profound lies out of the mouth of susan rice and the american public is entitled to know the truth of what happened. >> bret: harry reid said this. watching republicans and otherwise distinguished records with -- with otherwise distinguished records on national security place their desire to please the tea party ahead of doing the right thing for our troops is one of the saddest spectacles i have

witnessed in my 27 years in the senate. charles? >> i mean, harry looked extremely sad tonight. extremely sad that republicans prevented us from having a secretary of defense. in the difficult days has anyone told him that panetta is in office and next week will go to europe as secretary of defense to represent the united states? perhaps he needs an antidepressant. i'd be happy to give him one. >> bret: leave it there. we'll talk about this more. next up, does the president's vision of universal preschool have any chance to become reality? [ male announcer ] any technology not moving forward is moving backward. [ engine turns over, tires squeal ] and you'll find advanced safety technology like an available heads-up display on the 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back.

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our commitment to our kids' education has to continue throughout the academic lives. we are working to retain new teachers in field of science, technology, engineering and math where we're most likely to fall behind. >> it's easy to go out there and be santa claus and talk about all the things you want to give away but at some point somebody has to pay the bill. >> bret: today, the president was in georgia touting a program. he wants the government providing preschool for every 4-year-old child from lower and middle glass families. pre-k program. charles, what about this? >> i find this amazing. first, just hearing him say every first grader in america has to be prepared for a high-tech economy, that is a bit early, i think. the other part, here we are

with $16 trillion in debt. trillion dollars a year in deficit. we created already with under obama, the biggest entitlement in 50 years. now he wants to create a new entitlement for preschool for every 4-year-old in the country. the worst part of this, this isn't just any new entitlement. this is an entitlement that we know the $7 billion a year that we spend on head start, doesn't make any difference after the third grade. there is a study that h.h.s. has done that shows that. it's failure and he wants to double down to make it universal. thats probably a definition of a liberal. >> bret: now, cursen he cites study after -- kirsten, he cites study after study showing childhood early learning the better they do down the road. conservatives point to other studies that it doesn't have ra benefit by the time they read third grade. >> it's not liberal or conservative thing. i think everybody wants to help the children do better in school. it's just this doesn't seem to be the thing that is doing it.

as charles mentioned, the h.h.s. study. you know, you have business leaders that were quoted in the "new york times" today saying we need to do this to prepare our workforce for the future. they are 3 and 4-year-olds. they're children. they don't have to be in preschool. i think that you should offer something to help at-risk kids. but to do something universal for every child, child is in a happy home learning from the parents doesn't necessarily have to be in preschool. but i think we should make it available for kids who maybe don't have the same opportunities. >> bret: judge, libertarian point of view, i assume any expansion of the federal government is not something that you are -- >> my goodness. where is this in the constitution? somewhere the ghost of woodrow wilson is happy because he is out-doing -- obama is outdoing woodrow wilson. this is not the job of government to take care of babies. it's the job of families. it's certainly not the job of the federal government to have anything to do with education. exception of the military academy where education is

suburb. when the government gets involved in education it's a waste of money. >> the definition of a liberal. somebody that doesn't care what you do as long as it's mandatory. this idea of expanding this program, this tender age is offensive. for those parents who want to keep the kid at home. also useless. >> there are programs that they have found to have been helpful. and not at a young age. kids in summertime as they get older, it tends to be when you see the gaps growing between kids coming from affluent homes versus poor children. and they have -- >> it's not the president's job. >> i disagree. that's why i think, that is definition of a liberal. i think the government can help out in this situation. and help the kids who are falling behind. and would benefit from being in summer programs. i just don't think the pre-k thing should be universal. >> bret: meanwhile, the sequestration is looming. a couple of days away. so we wanted to talk about this. judge, as always, thank you for coming down.

>> pleasure, bret. >> bret: panel, thank you. that is it for the panel. stay tuned to see a signal of major bipartisanship that we may have missed tuesday night. hi. hi. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens. the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful.

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finally tonight, republicans and democrats have taken heat for not being able to compromise on various issues in washington. it appears as valentine's day was approaching, both parties were able to set aside their differences and get along. we may have missed it though, at least for the state of the union. [ applause ] [ applause ] members of congress, i have the highest privilege. >> dear sweet john boehner. >> thanks for inviting us into your home